Metamorphosis of photonic bandgaps

Abstract

We found a nontrivial metamorphosis of photonic band gaps during interpolation between two photonic crystals with two different length scales. The interpolation is parametrized by a dielectric constant of the columns inserted at the positions that are appropriately chosen in each unit cell of the starting photonic crystal. For an instance of the metamorphosis, the first band gap that is present at the beginning gradually shortens and disappears during the interpolation, while the second band gap which is initially absent begins to appear and eventually becomes a first band gap. This mechanism of opening and closing of the photonic band gaps can be used when designing tunable photonic crystals. © 2002 American Institute of Physics.